I noticed that Captains Sisko, Picard and Janeway (I am sure the other Captains too) are always wearing the colour red. Is it because they are all Tactical Officers promoted as Captains OR because it's merely the colours of Higher Ups? Please, no tv show spoilers about why or how it came to be (I am watching DS9, and don't want any spoilers related to any ST shows). All I want to know is why their uniforms are always red.
EDIT:
For anyone else who has that same question, I will post my favourite quote from the answers below
Poor Writers
Jellico....Engineer ground.....Da'val Romulan space Sci
Saphire.. Science ground......Ko'el Romulan space Tac
Leva........Tactical ground.....Koj Romulan space Eng
JJ-Verse will never be Canon or considered Lore...It will always be JJ-Verse
Actually in the TOS movies they were still color coded, it was just the color coding was by the undershirt and rank strap color. Much like how the color coding went to the undershirt in the later TNG movies.
Command = white
engineering = yellow
science/medical = blue
But the Uniforms themselves are still red, that's what OP was asking. (Baring TMP but I didn't count that)
Sorry - didn't read through the pages but isn't red the 'COMMAND' color, changed from the original COMMAND GOLD in Archer and Kirk's era?
Why they swapped I don't know. I can't imagine any organized military (let's face it, they are the space navy) would make such an egregious alteration to the standard uniform.
I lie - I do know why. They swapped it because the costume designers on TNG changed them and it was written into canon. Maybe Patrick Stewart looked better in red than gold (or blue, for that matter). What I do know is that security details should have their own color - perhaps even black, but not red as that designates an officer oin Command.
But seeing as TOS was a 3 color system they couldn't really add a color could they? Not until Archer's MACOs... but then again, they weren't officially part of the Enterprise official crew but more of tactical escorts. When they officially became standard on the ships, their uniforms changed to match.
Sorry - didn't read through the pages but isn't red the 'COMMAND' color, changed from the original COMMAND GOLD in Archer and Kirk's era?
Why they swapped I don't know. I can't imagine any organized military (let's face it, they are the space navy) would make such an egregious alteration to the standard uniform.
Apparently all NPC captains are Tacticals then. Explains a lot.
They do, and it does. It's no secret that Cryptic seem to favor their escorts, so they're bound to have more escort-orientated NPC's. Think of it as a Cryptic Easter Egg.
"Command" is a bit of a misnomer, it's not so much that people in red are senior in authority, but they operate within the ship's command and administrative department. That being said, Helm in red makes sense, since Helm answers only to command, and no other department. Navigation on the other hand answers to both command and navigation, security answers to both operations and command, engineering answers to operations and command, etc. Ships administration falls under the pervue of Command, not operations. Much like modern vessels the XO (First Officer) is head of the ships administative department, and as such people fulfilling administrative roles (like yeomen) wear the command color, and not operations color.
Except how often did you see a tac officer in red? Never really...
It is indeed a bit wavey where "tactical" fit into TNG colours since there weren't "tacticals", really. But Worf in his DS9 time wore red and there was at least Lt. Cmdr. Shelby from Starfleet Tactical, also wearing red. All the major weapons officers in the show wore gold because they always were also head of security (Yar, Worf, Tuvok) and any form of direct combat action was primarily executed by security personnel (Ops), although I'd suspect a (field)medic for example would work in medical, hence be teal/blue regardless of the duty he or she would peform. So all in all I think "tactical" is more of a STO invention for the MMO trinity instead of being a real function in Trekverse since frankly any department could add viable traits to "tactical" operations.
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It is indeed a bit wavey where "tactical" fit into TNG colours since there weren't "tacticals", really. But Worf in his DS9 time wore red and there was at least Lt. Cmdr. Shelby from Starfleet Tactical, also wearing red.
Worf took the position of Strategic Operations Officer. As far as I understand that position can best be described as a sort of "adjutant" for Sisko and he was resonsible for micro managing the fleet deployments in the area as well as micromanaging the day to day dealings with the ship's commanders, while Sisko took care of the bigger stuff.
In addition he became the closest thing to an XO for the Defiant.
That pretty much is as "command" as it gets short of a command of his own.
In STO Captains can wear their original department color and I usually do, but sometimes change to red anyway.
Was thinking about using the new Odyssey uniforms to do both.
Make the should color red for command (which Cryptic officially made white) and the thin color strip the original department color.
They do, and it does. It's no secret that Cryptic seem to favor their escorts, so they're bound to have more escort-orientated NPC's. Think of it as a Cryptic Easter Egg.
Comments
Poor Writers
Saphire.. Science ground......Ko'el Romulan space Tac
Leva........Tactical ground.....Koj Romulan space Eng
JJ-Verse will never be Canon or considered Lore...It will always be JJ-Verse
Apparently all NPC captains are Tacticals then. Explains a lot.
But the Uniforms themselves are still red, that's what OP was asking. (Baring TMP but I didn't count that)
Except how often did you see a tac officer in red? Never really...
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Why they swapped I don't know. I can't imagine any organized military (let's face it, they are the space navy) would make such an egregious alteration to the standard uniform.
I lie - I do know why. They swapped it because the costume designers on TNG changed them and it was written into canon. Maybe Patrick Stewart looked better in red than gold (or blue, for that matter). What I do know is that security details should have their own color - perhaps even black, but not red as that designates an officer oin Command.
But seeing as TOS was a 3 color system they couldn't really add a color could they? Not until Archer's MACOs... but then again, they weren't officially part of the Enterprise official crew but more of tactical escorts. When they officially became standard on the ships, their uniforms changed to match.
Because real organized militaries never make egregious uniform alterations.
Except that picture he is a Commander...that is a alternate reality where he is second in command of the Enterprise.
This is a very good explanation. I like it
It is indeed a bit wavey where "tactical" fit into TNG colours since there weren't "tacticals", really. But Worf in his DS9 time wore red and there was at least Lt. Cmdr. Shelby from Starfleet Tactical, also wearing red. All the major weapons officers in the show wore gold because they always were also head of security (Yar, Worf, Tuvok) and any form of direct combat action was primarily executed by security personnel (Ops), although I'd suspect a (field)medic for example would work in medical, hence be teal/blue regardless of the duty he or she would peform. So all in all I think "tactical" is more of a STO invention for the MMO trinity instead of being a real function in Trekverse since frankly any department could add viable traits to "tactical" operations.
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Worf took the position of Strategic Operations Officer. As far as I understand that position can best be described as a sort of "adjutant" for Sisko and he was resonsible for micro managing the fleet deployments in the area as well as micromanaging the day to day dealings with the ship's commanders, while Sisko took care of the bigger stuff.
In addition he became the closest thing to an XO for the Defiant.
That pretty much is as "command" as it gets short of a command of his own.
In STO Captains can wear their original department color and I usually do, but sometimes change to red anyway.
Was thinking about using the new Odyssey uniforms to do both.
Make the should color red for command (which Cryptic officially made white) and the thin color strip the original department color.
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Indeed, I put tacs in cruisers, I've put engineer in escourts. I tend to keep scis in sci ships though as it provides best access to sci abilities.
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